tedg It isn't quite a genre, but there sure is a tightly related collection of films that rely on an actress to charm us.The form is simple: find a woman with intrinsic energy, and shape a story to pull that out. We fall in love just like the usually helpless guy in the story. Events surround and threaten, all designed to highlight the specific charms of the focus and show that we (through our representative) will stick with the girl.Its a simple narrative fold, a trick to engage us in the story. The story is the girl, and the tighter we follow her, the more we are drawn into the story. The problem of course is that its all designed to pull us in, with nothing of value happening while we are in. The usual solution is to acknowledge that and make a point of the future being empty, deliberately so. So Deckard goes of with Rachel into a void. Its about the staying, the belonging.There are only three real values in this. Does the girl charm? Is the story and the charming integrated? What's the world they send us into at the end?This girl is the daughter of a filmmaker who specializes in doing violence to such characters, layering heavy noir dynamics on them. So there's that. She's particularly seductive in an aggressive way, not at all say, like Dalle in Betty Blue, where we the viewer are complicit in the seduction. Dalle matters. We carry her away after the film.Our girl here is nude a few times as if that matters a lot. The hapless guy is a radio storyteller, teacher, musician, champion of social justice as if we needed more than one anchor.She's also a wonderful thief, as if we needed some "Ms 45" seduction, that sort of ping when the sex is with someone who has killed. So its all overloaded. The last 20 minutes is close to lovely. Its been done before, this business of painting a derelict room in the wild. (I recently saw it to good effect in Stromboli.) Our girl turns lovely in the country. But its the sideshow with two gay friends that makes this worth watching.These guys are played by Rupert Everett and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. If you study narrative, you'll appreciate how this backstory supports the whole. Its quite lovely because she is most sexual, nude and loved when in the company of these men. It gives her an excuse to show us that she is inherently seduction, not deliberately so. It provides a footing for love that is outside of sex, and though based on obsession and addiction transcends them by using them.Everett really seems to understand this. Its his best performance by far. You almost fall in love with him instead of her by misdirection, because that's where the passion is. So it works, sex without sex, love by capture.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

Son_of_Mansfield Beatrice(Asia Argento) is a thief who comes into the life of teacher/DJ Alan(Jared Harris), bringing a little excitement and a little trouble. It's a plot that has been done better before and B. Monkey doesn't bring anything new to the genre. The cast, which also includes John Rhys Meyers ans Rupert Everett as B. partners in crime, make it worth watching. Jared Harris looks like that teacher with the hot wife that nobody quite knows why she is with him, John Rhys Meyers is perhaps Asia's male partner in pretty, and Rupert Everett is Rupert Everett as always. Most of the attention goes to Asia Argento as she plays another tortured character. The best thing on display in this movie is her body, in the tub, on the bed, and with a gun thrust in front of her bare breasts. That is a good reason to love you.

Coventry (minor spoilers included)What we have here is an acceptable attempt of mixing several good and widely divergent ideas into one big jar. B.Monkey rushes by at high speed and tries to combine an apparently impossible romance with gangster-movie elements and black comedy. A guy, who is quite possibly the most well-behaving citizen in all England (grade schoolteacher. serving as a volunteer in a hospital.classic radio DJ.) falls deeply in love with his female opposite (armed robber.tattooed and high-spirited.nymph) and they want to build a new life together. Unfortunately, the girl can't leave her infamous past behind her. Even when the couple flees to the middle of British nowhere, the girl's former partners and enemies follow them at all times. B. Monkey merely depends on a few powerful sequences and a couple of intriguing characters. The creativity and goodwill is there, but the whole finished product still looks like one big muddle. Also, the entire film isn't exactly plausible which makes it even harder to digest. Strictly seen as a black comedy and social satire, it does deserve a bit of praising. Multiple 'human interest'-topics are spoofed here which lifts up the film to a slightly higher dimension (to me, at least). And then there are the acting performances.Especially Rupert Everett impresses as the addicted homosexual friend. Everett is good in portraying `weirdos', like his previous `Dellamorte Dellamore' already stated. Asia Argento is just one adorable angel.Dario's daughter owes a lot to her looks but there's obviously quite some talent present as well in that ravishing body of hers. Thank goodness she's not one of those pretentious actresses who don't take risks in their careers. She's speaking with an incredibly sexy Italian accent and her nude scenes contribute in making this nice little film more memorable.All together, B.Monkey isn't top priority to check out, but it guarantees fun and action from start to finish.

Alex-372 B. Monkey is a showcase for Asia Argento's acting skills and screen presence. What you also get is a lot of britpop, from when it was cool and "in". However, the idea that lively girl at the edge of society can't do better than shack up with a straightlaced primary school teacher who lives for the most bloodless 40s jazz and to boot retires to the Yorkshire Dales... That takes a lot of suspension of disbelief.Wisely, the knight in shining armor, who looks like David Caruso and talks like John Major isn't featured on any of the video covers or movie posters. Asia Argento, on the other hand, bares all and looks kind of attractive, but it's the beauty of youth. She also needs to work on her elocution, which at first is cute, but is going to limit her as an actress.Rupert Everett is reliable as the bisexual toff heroin addict, but he never jumps out and runs away with the script. Patrick Rhys-Meyers is a young actor to keep an eye on, though, one of those guys who have bit parts in loads of movies, while you never notice them because they act so well that they blend into the background like chameleons (John Seymour Hoffman is one example, or Donal Logue).On the whole, this movie is as bland as the music the lead listens to. Understatement can be taken too far.